November 5th

In almost a week, we will be having some new housemates! On November 5th, Chase and Julie (David's brother and his wife) will be moving to Nicaragua! They came to visit in January of this year. They both had the desire to serve overseas and lucky for us, the Lord called them here! We could not be more excited!

Many of you are thinking, wait, she said housemates??? Yep, that's right! They will be living with us. As in the same house. Under the same roof. Sharing the same food. When we tell people this, they get a concerned look on their face and ask - "Do you get along well with them?" :) And our answer is YES!

David and I have said for a while how we thought it would be cool to share life with another couple. To have community right inside your house. We now have the perfect opportunity.

However, we know that living with someone always has conflict and issues and annoyances. We are not naive in thinking that this will be perfect. We know that we will get on each other's nerves, there will be miscommunication, and we will have to sacrifice.

But we are also excited for the fellowship. We're excited for the many laughs to be had. We look forward to growing with each other. We can't wait to school them in some games! We hope that the Lord will use this to mature us in our love, our giving, and sacrifice.

So yeah, the Norman Russells are about to become the Nicaragua Russells. Oh wait, that's us. Maybe they'll be the Nicaragua Russells Squared? Or the Younger Nicaragua Russells? Or the Nicaragua Russells that came in 2009? Whatever, they're coming!







If anyone else from back home would like to move here, feel free! :)

The New Gerber Baby

They make that baby on the side of the Gerber baby food jar look so happy and peaceful. It's like they couldn't think of anything better than to eat some mashed up green stuff.

This is what a baby looks like in real life, when he eats green beans for the first time.






(Click on this picture and it should get bigger. This was his face almost the entire time!)




I don't think he thinks green beans are the best thing in the world. Still adorable though!

That's Right

This is what I used to do....





Just laying on my stomach. No big.


And, this is what I can do now!





That's right, sitting up! Not even 6 months! I'm so advanced!

It finally happened....

Getting a ticket that is! :(

So about 3 weeks ago, I was driving back from my volleyball game in downtown Managua. I was minding my own business, when all of a sudden I got pulled over by a police officer. There is always a little bit of fear when you get pulled over here, especially when you can't always understand everything they say!

A lot of times, when you get pulled over they are looking for a bribe. This police officer; however, was not. He said that when I turned, I did not turn into the immediate lane and that is against the law here. Who knew?? So basically I got a ticket!

Getting a ticket here is different than in the states. They write you up a ticket on this little yellow piece of paper and then take your license! Your first thought is, "How am I going to drive without my license?" But have no fear, the ticket you received is now your temporary license. Seems weird to me, but it makes you pay the ticket, if you want your license back. So, I guess it's a good system.

So today, I had to go to the bank to pay the ticket. Again weird to me that you pay your ticket at the bank, but that's just how it is. Then I had to drive to Transito to get back my license. I was a little worried about whether or not I would actually get my license back. So I prayed about it and just did it.

It was actually very easy and they had a really good system set up! I went to Transito and there was my license (under the Extranjera window). So easy!

So yeah, no more fear about getting a ticket here! And to top it off the ticket was only 400 cords or $20! Not bad!

Oktoberfest!

Randomly there is a large German population here in Managua. To me, it seems weird that there are so many German people here. However, they probably think the same thing - "Why are there so many North Americans here??" Regardless there are a lot of German people here. So much so, that there is a German school in Managua.

On Saturday, the German school hosted Oktoberfest. I'm trying to find some fun, cultural things to do here in Managua, so I thought let's go to Oktoberfest! I had never gone to Oktoberfest in the states, but in my head I pictured it kind of like the fair. You know, booths set up with games, booths with yummy food, German people walking around! :) I assumed since it was at a school that there wouldn't be any alcohol. Silly me! Nothing is never what I think it's going to be here!

Overall though, it was a lot of fun! We ate Brawtwurst (I have no clue how to spell that, but you know what I mean, right?), sawerkrawt (again, what's with these German words being impossible to spell)and had many Cokes! :) Beckett came with us and was a champ! He just sat and even fell asleep in David's arms - a rarity. And we got to see the German school! It is huge and unbelievably nice! Like really, really nice. Like better than anything I've seen here!

So yeah, Oktoberfest in Nicaragua. Who could imagine that!

Writer's Block

I've been having writer's block recently and can't think of much to write about. It's not like I write these super in depth novels! Still, I can't think of much.

I could tell you how we have at least 6 different varieties of ants living in our house. But that sounds like I'm complaining, which I'm not! I would never! :)





I'm sure you can't tell but this one type of evil ant is up in the corner of our ceiling. Those black things are ants. They come out of the ceiling (random) and then just crawl around up there. I secretly wish the geckos (that also live in our house, but are our friends) would eat them all. Ok, enough, not complaining about the ants!

I can show you how Beckett has been sleeping lately! That's more fun! But I do wonder if I blog too much about him and not enough about life in Nicaragua.



Yep, hiney in the air! So cute! I was wrong, how can you really get too much of Beckett? Not possible.

Hopefully, the writer's block will be gone soon. And I'll be back to my normal super creative self - that you all know and love! :)

Chloe Faith!

Our sweet friends, the Hortons, are taking home their new baby girl today! They had Chloe about a week ago, but due to some complications are just now bring her home!

We are way excited for them!

It's neat for me to have friends having babies now! I'm excited for them to experience the joy (and hardships) of a new baby. (I sound like I'm this really experienced mom!) I'm also really excited to meet Chloe! :)

We joke about Chloe and Beckett getting married one day. That way we can always be connected to the Hortons. No pressure or anything.

How did I become one of "those" moms?

I'm 5....!

..... months that is!

I'm a little late on this, but our internet was down for a bit!

Beckett is 5 months and 5 days old today!

We went to the doctor on Friday and the doctor said he is doing great! He weighs 15 lbs and 1 oz! He gained almost 2 pounds in a month, which I say is awesome (and so does his doctor). He's 65 cm long. Which I don't know how long in inches that is (darn metric system!). And his head circumference is in the 50th percentile.

Some fun things he's been doing this month are:

-constantly turning from his back to his stomach. constantly.
-eating rice cereal more consistently and beginning to sort of, kind of like it.
-playing in his exersauser (that a sweet friend loaned us)
-grabbing anything in site, including my hair, my nose, spoons, toys, computer cords
-beginning to want to sit up
-sleeping on his tummy
-laughing a bit more
-taking long walks with mom in the morning
-being so stinkin cute!

It's incredible to me how much he has grown and changed! (Every mom says this, huh?) He really is such a blessing to us. At least once a day, David and I will say to each other how much we love that little boy. We thank the Lord for him!





Taking a much, much needed nap today!! :)